Mankato, Minn. – Despite tonight’s rain delay that lasted over an hour in the middle of Josh Ramirez’s start, he still came out strong and pitched six inning in the MoonDogs victory over the Honkers. Ramirez struck out five batters tonight, allowed six hits, and only surrendered one run.

The Honkers first run of the game came in the top of the third inning off a couple of hits from the middle of their lineup. Third baseman, Michael Michalak, singled and then stole second to put himself in scoring position. Alex McGarry hit a single to right field and drove in Michalak to put the Honkers up 1-0.

The MoonDogs answered with a four run inning in the bottom of the third. Kenton Crews started the rally with an RBI double that scored Austin Bull. Crews eventually came around to score on a single to right field from Kyle MacDonald. Jake Shepski’s next at bat would be interrupted in a 3-1 count, the game was called into a one hour and ten minute delay due to rain and lightning. Once the game resumed play, Shepski and MacDonald scored to put the MoonDogs up 4-1.

Rochester narrowed the gap in the eighth inning when Matt Hardy drove a double off the wall in right-center field to drive in two runs. Honkers outfielder, Christian Robinson, singled to right field to score Hardy, but then was thrown out by Zac Wiley when he tried to stretch the single into a double. Mankato still had the lead 5-4.

Zach Hardy entered in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and completed a four out save into the ninth inning. Hardy on the season has pitched 11.2 innings, struck out 12 batters, and surrendered zero runs for the MoonDogs.

Mankato will head to Rochester to play the Honkers tomorrow, and Jarod Wright is schedule to pitch for the MoonDogs. First pitch will be at 7:05 PM.

##

The Mankato MoonDogs are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Now in its 25th anniversary season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 190 former Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist (CHC) and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (BOS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET) and Curtis Granderson (TOR).  All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League portal. For more information, visit https://northwoodsleague.com/mankato-moondogs/ or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the MoonDogs as your favorite team.-